Behind the counter of a drug store and hospital pharmacy, medicine dispensing machines are essential tools for the pharmacists to efficiently fill the vials with the prescribed medicines so that they can quickly deliver the medicines to the customers and patients. Latest machines not only fill the vials with the medicines including tablets, capsules and powders but also label the vials to notify the pharmacist and patient useful information such as who the vial is for and what medicine the vial contains. Now, there is a demand from some users that they want to print more information on the labels.
One way to do so is to make the font size smaller. However, many patients are elderly people. These people often have presbyopia and feel difficult to read small letters. Therefore, making the font size smaller is not a good idea. Other ways are necessary to print more information on the labels.
One good way to print more information on the label is to make the label larger or to increase the number of labels put on the vial. However, since the label is usually pasted on the lateral surface of the vial, the total width of the labels cannot be larger than the circumference of the vial. Traditionally, the shape of the vials has been cylindrical. In other words, the transverse cross-sectional shape of the vials has been circular. In this case, the maximum width of the label that can be pasted is determined only by the diameter of the vial.